1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image drawing method for drawing an image on a screen of a portable terminal, such as a mobile phone, to a portable terminal, and to a computer program, and particularly relates to an image drawing method for drawing an image in units of grid squares, such as an ASCII character, a pictogram, or a filled-in grid square, to a portable terminal, and to a computer program.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an image drawing method for drawing an image that substitutes for an illustration by inputting a plurality of characters (including pictograms, and simple filled-in grid squares) within a grid square for several lines on the screen of a portable terminal, to a portable terminal, and to a computer program, and particularly relates to an image drawing method for drawing an image formed of grid squares by using input keys of a mobile phone arranged in an N×M (specifically 3×4) matrix, to a portable terminal, and to a computer program.
In recent years, as information communication technology has become popular, various message exchange systems, such as electronic mail, electronic bulletin boards, and online chat systems, have been available. In this type of message exchange system, one example of a message editing technique is a method of creating a picture by combining characters such as symbols, which are also called “ASCII Art (AA)”. In ASCII Art, characters of faces are mainly predominant, but illustrations of landscape paintings and realistic looking paintings are sometimes drawn across several lines. In electronic mail, electronic bulletin boards, and the like, the basic trend is that messages composed of sentences are exchanged on the basis of characters. With ASCII Art, it is possible to provide a visual effect in a plain character display area (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-305987, Paragraph 0007, FIG. 21).
The usage of ASCII Art started long ago with the advent of “personal computer communication” involving connection via a public line. Thereafter, ASCII Art has rapidly become popular through anonymous electronic bulletin boards and is now often used for signature in electronic mail. Of course, electronic bulletin boards and electronic mail can be accessed by various portable terminals that can be connected to the Internet, including mobile phones. The usage of ASCII Art is widespread in these information devices as well as personal computers.
Here, ASCII is a character code system (well known) in which the Roman alphabet, numerals, and some other symbols are defined. ASCII Art is structured using characters (single-byte character set (SBCS)) that were defined by the code system at its inception. At present, double-byte characters (DBCS), such as Japanese language word characters, Greek characters, Cyrillic characters, and the like, are also used. Double-byte characters can also be used, but ASCII Art excels in the expressive power of illustrations, and the development of ASCII Art is conspicuous in regions where double-byte characters are commonly used as in, above all, Japan.
Formerly, on a personal computer, characters were predominantly displayed using monospaced font, and the form of the character displayed differed depending on the model type and the environment. Therefore, by considering that the proportions of a drawing will be maintained, basically, ASCII Art is drawn using characters that are monospaced font and that are independent of model type. Furthermore, in mobile phones or the like, pictograms common to each mobile phone carrier are provided. Therefore, it is considered that it is possible to draw ASCII Art using pictograms within the same mobile phone carrier (within the service environment in which the same pictogram code system is provided). In the following, for the sake of convenience, a description will be given by including characters outside the ASCII code and images drawn in units of grid squares by the movement of a cursor, such as simple filled-in grid squares, in “ASCII Art”.
In the all point addressable (APA) GUI (Graphical User Interface) environment, it is easy to draw a detailed illustration by using a mouse, a touch-pen, or the like and import it as digital data into the system. On the other hand, in the display environment in which only a character-based editing area, such as electronic mail and an electronic bulletin board, is provided, there is no other way but to draw images, such as illustrations, in units of grid squares by using a cursor, as in the case of ASCII Art. Such a situation generally applies to mobile phones that are not equipped with an APA function.
Here, when an image that substitutes for an illustration, such as a landscape painting or a realistic looking painting, is to be edited over several lines in units of grid squares by using a cursor, it is necessary to limitlessly repeat an operation of moving the cursor to a place where contour and shading of a desired picture pattern exist and inputting an appropriate character or color.
For example, on the input screen of a personal computer having a QWERTY-type full keyboard, it is necessary to press a key corresponding to a character used while moving a cursor to a desired grid square position by pressing the up, down, left, and right cursor keys. In the GUI environment, an operation of moving the cursor can be performed using a pointing device, such as, for example, a mouse, and the operation burden is reduced somewhat.
As has already been described, an illustration formed of grid squares like an ASCII Art illustration is demanded also in a portable terminal, such as a mobile phone, with which message exchange is performed via the Internet. Usually, a mobile phone has, as an input device, character input keys arranged in a 3×4 matrix for inputting Kana characters and alphanumeric characters, and a five-input directional key formed of up, down, left, and right directional keys and a center set key. An editing operation needs to be performed by repeatedly pressing these keys, and even if both hands are freely used, the operation burden becomes a problem.
A drawing method has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1-292398) in which, for example, in a drawing method of drawing in units of grid squares by using a cursor, a small coordinate screen (another window) that is displayed by computing the relative position of the current cursor in units of grid squares is provided within the screen. Drawing can be performed in units of grid squares by referring to the number-of-dots information at the position of the current cursor displayed on the small coordinate screen by using a mouse cursor or the like. According to this drawing method, it is possible to draw a fine image by adjusting a cursor to a precise dot position. However, the presupposition is that a multi-window system is used. Furthermore, the input operation is not simplified unless a device for directly indicating the coordinates of a mouse or the like is equipped. Therefore, it is considered that it is difficult to apply the drawing method to a mobile phone or the like.
Furthermore, software for generating ASCII Art from an image file has been developed. There is a high demand for a processor having sufficient processing performance to execute the software, an operating system that provides the execution environment, a high storage capacity of the system, and the like. Thus, it is difficult to apply the software to an embedded device.